Union representatives accuse animal activists of mental
violence against fur auction employees
Helsinki (08.01.2006 - Juhani Artto) Just before Christmas, at
the Fur Centre in Vantaa, close to Helsinki, animal rights' activists targeted not only
potential customers (which is fairly normal) but this time also Fur Centre employees.
Activists photographed employees and their car number-plates or registration numbers.
Employees were also verbally abused on their way into work.
This kind of behaviour smacks of mental violence, Matti
Viialainen, deputy director of SAK's economic and social policy department says.
"Calling them names and scaring of employees may cause anxiety and even serious
psychological suffering."
The freedom to express one's opinion does not in any way justify mental violence,
Viialainen says. He appeals, together with Matti Vanha-Aho, occupational safety secretary
of the Service Union United PAM, to animal rights' activists to leave employees alone when
campaigning against the fur business.
In Finland, the fur industry is a legal, well managed, and openly monitored line of
business, Vanha-aho insists. Taken as a whole, the industry is directly and indirectly the
source of income for over 20,000 people.
The Fur Centre at Vantaa has over 100 permanent and close to 500 fixed-term employees
(with immigrant labour making up some of the workforce). Many employees are organised in
the Service Union United PAM. At the fur farms themselves a couple of hundred employees
are organised in the Wood and Allied Workers' union. The fur industry's national
collective agreement covers about 1,000 employees.
The Wood and Allied Workers' Union has on several occasions openly defended the fur farms'
right to conduct their business.
Read also:
Fur farming, Wikipedia
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